Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Art is You Mixed Media 2015 Recap Part 2

Here's how the piece looked at the end of the class. I had demo'd abstract line and color work, silhouette making, gelli printing and more. (You can see images from my Hebrew Calligraphy and Namaste stencils, as well as icons from Mary Beth Shaw's Flower Tile Stencils.)

I came home to a messy worktable. Inspired by this video by Denise Alloca, I started ripping shapes from the newsprint on my table, which had images from my Medallions stencil on it, into impressionist silhouettes of people. I added them to my canvas. Then, I decided to add faces and wings to them.

This is a process I am calling the "Yes, And..." approach to art making. "Yes, And" is an improv technique used in acting classes. It’s an exercise that allows for anything to happen, and it goes like this: No matter what your fellow actors present to you, instead of negating it, belittling it, or disagreeing with it, you say, “Yes, and…” You accept the scenario as it’s presented to you (regardless of where you wanted it to go), and then to add to it. (You can hear Julie Balzer and me talk about it in this podcast.) This approach is evident in this canvas, where the torn pieces of paper on my worktable took me somewhere completely different. Though it's no surprise, as I've been seeing angels everywhere!

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